Broadway to Main Street

How Show Tunes Enchanted America

Laurence Maslon

Based on new interviews with Harold Prince, Stephen Schwartz, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, Chita Rivera, Steve Lawrence, and prominent record producers and music critics

Places the original cast album within the larger context of our national identity

Perfect for everyone who wants to know more about how their favorite cast albums were created and received

Includes companion website with audio examples

Broadway to Main Street

How Show Tunes Enchanted America

Laurence Maslon

Description

The music of Broadway is one of America's most unique and popular calling cards. In Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America, author Laurence Maslontells the story of how the most beloved songs of the American Musical Theater made their way from the Theater District to living rooms across the country.

The crossroads where the music of Broadway meets popular culture is an expansive and pervasive juncture throughout most of the twentieth century--from sheet music to radio broadcasts to popular and original cast recordings--and continues to influence culture today through television, streaming, and the Internet. The original Broadway cast album--from the 78 rpm recording of Oklahoma! to the digital download of Hamilton--is one of the most successful, yet undervalued, genres in the history of popular recording. The challenge of capturing musical narrative with limited technology inspired the imagination of both the recording industry and millions of listeners: between 1949 and 1969, fifteen different original cast albums hit number one on the popular music charts, ultimately tallying more weeks at number one than all of the albums by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles combined. The history of Broadway music is also the history of American popular music; the technological, commercial, and marketing forces of communications and media over the last century were inextricably bound up in the enterprise of bringing the musical gems of New York's Theater District to living rooms along Main Streets across the nation.

Featuring new interviews with Stephen Schwartz, Chita Rivera, Steve Lawrence, and prominent record producers and music critics, the story of this commercial and emotional phenomenon is told here in full--from the imprimatur of sheet music from Broadway in the early 20th century to the renaissance of Broadway music in the digital age, folding in the immense impact of show music on American culture and in the context of the recording industry, popular tastes, and our shared national identity. A book which connects cherished cultural artifacts to the emotional narratives at the core of American popular music, Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America is an ideal companion for all fans of American musical theater and popular music.

Broadway to Main Street

How Show Tunes Enchanted America

Laurence Maslon

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: House Seat: Music and the private space of BroadwayChapter 1. Turn Over For Act Two: Content and the context of BroadwayChapter 2. The Jewish Population of Tennessee: Sheet music and the imprimatur of BroadwayChapter 3. Face the Music (and Dance): The gramophone and the voice of BroadwayChapter 4. The Majestic Theater of the Air: Radio and the personality of BroadwayChapter 5: The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends: Albums sets and the narrative of BroadwayChapter 6. Every Home's a First Night: The Long-Playing record and the commodity of BroadwayChapter 7. Songs For Swingin' Show Fans: Hit singles and the catalogue of BroadwayChapter 8. "And My Fair Lady Is a Terrific Show," They Say: The record producer and the blockbuster of BroadwayChapter 9. Hymn to a Sunday Evening: Television and the mythology of BroadwayChapter 10. A Few of My Favorite Things: Movie stars and the soundtrack of BroadwayChapter 11. Was There Too Much of a Crowd, All Too Lush and Loud?: Pop singles and the adult contemporaneity of Broadway Chapter 12. Losing My Timing This Late in My Career: The rock scene and the margin road of BroadwayChapter 13. You Never Seen a Show Like This Before: Compact discs and the digitalization of BroadwayChapter 14. History Has Its Eyes On You: The Internet and the mixtape of Broadway

EndnotesBibliographyIndex

Broadway to Main Street

How Show Tunes Enchanted America

Laurence Maslon

Author Information

Laurence Maslon is Arts Professor and Associate Chair at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter, he is the author of several books about the musical theater, including the companion volume to the PBS series Broadway: The American Musical as well as the editor of the Library of America's two-volume set American Musicals (1927-1969), containing sixteen classic Broadway librettos.

Broadway to Main Street

How Show Tunes Enchanted America

Laurence Maslon

Reviews and Awards

"By the way, if cast albums aren't a Christmas option for your friends and relatives because they have every one of them (well, all my friends do) you can always give them Laurence Maslon's excellent new book Broadway to Main Stre et: How Show Tunes Enchanted America." --Masterworks Broadway

When and how did America discover Broadway? Laurence Maslon, a professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, tells part of the story in Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America, a fully sourced, engagingly written study that is a model of its kind. It is as fine a book as could possibly be written about the way in which the Broadway musicals of the 20th century have come to be woven into our cultural fabric." --Commentary

"Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America (Oxford University Press) is the first book I know to focus exhaustively on the rise of the modern cast album . . . Well-researched and well-written by Laurence Maslon, an Emmy-nominated producer and author-educator, the book tells a fascinating and little-known story about how Broadway theater rose to an influential position in American culture via records, television and Top-40 radio, all fueled by bestselling cast albums . . . The book fills a gap in history about an undervalued subject: the challenges of using limited technology to capture and preserve popular recordings for the masses and later generations." --The Columbus Dispatch

"Maslon's book explains the phenomenon of how show tunes have endured as an integral part of our popular culture. He also addresses the influence of the range of media on show music's popularity - from sheet music, radio and 78-rpm recordings to television, CDs, the Internet and streaming." --The Albuquerque Journal

"A valuable contribution to our understanding of the rise and importance of Broadway in American culture. And it's more than just a book: Notations scattered throughout the text direct readers to visit a companion website that includes performances by artists from Jolson to Jay-Z. Anyone interested in American popular culture will be able to appreciate Maslon's virtual libretto for giving our regards to Broadway." --The Weekly Standard

"This is both a lovely gift to musical theater fans and a serious text for those who study Broadway - Maslon deserves and receives raves." - LIBRARY JOURNAL, Starred Review

"This is the book Ive been waiting for since the day I found my mother's Original Broadway Cast Album of Carousel in our record cabinet - but this book is about so much more than the history of cast albums, although it's a glorious examination of that world. It's about the development of the entire music industry, and, indeed, popular culture itself throughout the twentieth century. Comprehensive, delightful, and deeply personal, this is a fabulous book - the only thing that kept me from reading it in one sitting was my inability to stop jumping up and playing all the recordings mentioned in the book." -- Malcolm Gets, Tony Award-nominated actor

"Anyone who refers to the beloved album of Hamilton as a 'soundtrack' needs to read Larry Maslon's remarkable book. He explains in historical, factual, and humorous detail what an original cast album is and what an important part of musical theater history it continues to be. There are nuggets of new information here to surprise us all. Maslon explains the fascinating rivalry among the record companies through the years and how the original cast album remains one of Broadway most important export tools. The book is fun, informative, and--dare I say it?-- important." -- Ted Chapin, President, Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization

"Broadway to Main Street is a fascinating look at show music's hold on the American imagination, and at the people who have brought its magic to the public, from Jerome Kern to Lin-Manuel Miranda, from Tin Pan Alley song pluggers to Ed Sullivan and Goddard Lieberson, from Al Jolson to Julie Andrews to John Legend. Laurence Maslon probably knows as much about American musical theater as anyone alive, but he also loves it, and it's that love, as well as his erudition, that makes Broadway to Main Street such a treat." -- Amanda Vaill, author of Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins

"Laurence Maslon, who knows as much as about the American Musical Theater as anyone on Planet Showbiz, explores the multi-layered bond between the phenomenon of the original cast album from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and its impact on the music industry. By focusing on the 'business' part of show business, Maslon opens a fascinating new door into the history of what just might be America's Greatest Treasure." -- John Guare, Playwright

Broadway to Main Street

How Show Tunes Enchanted America

Laurence Maslon

From Our Blog

Broadway musicals have enchanted America for decades, so much so that show tunes have made their way into popular culture via recordings by famous artists. These Broadway covers have launched these show tunes into legendary pop culture fame.

Popular singers have been covering Broadway for years, introducing show tunes into the mainstream of music. These covers have popularized iconic Broadway tunes and broadcasted show tunes to a larger audience beyond Broadway.